On August 19, 2005 NIH announced its plans to: 1) transition from the PHS398 application to the SF424 Research and Related (R&R) application; and 2) simultaneously transition to electronic submission of grant applications via Grants.gov (see NOT-OD-05-067).

After carefully considering input from the applicant community, analyzing the results of our first few submission rounds, and examining the timing of key submission dates in relation to other NIH initiatives, NIH has adjusted the implementation timeline for electronic application submission to provide an additional four months (one submission round) before the transition of the NIH traditional research grant (R01) mechanism and all subsequent mechanisms (see updated timeline). The transition date for the U01s, NIH's Research Cooperative Agreements, has also shifted to allow this mechanism to transition with the other complex research mechanisms in October 2007.

The new timeline will benefit both NIH and the applicant community by providing both with additional time to address business process and internal infrastructure changes needed to support this large endeavor. It also will allow NIH to learn from the experience of additional electronic submission cycles and provide NIH with the opportunity to bring together two major initiatives, electronic submission and allowing multiple principal investigators on research grant applications. NIH will likely pilot the multiple principal investigator initiative using the electronic SF424 (R&R) on select Requests for Applications (RFAs) for submission dates in the October 2006 timeframe. The experience NIH and the applicant community gain from the pilot will help inform the larger R01 transition scheduled for February 2007.